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Ron DeSantis, state Cabinet members revise rights-restoration rule

News Service of Florida
Published 5:57 p.m. ET Jan. 21, 2020

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Rev. Al Sharpton joins civil rights leaders in a call to restore the voting rights of felons who have served their time and are out in the community in the state of Florida

Amid a federal-court challenge to a state law requiring felons to pay “legal financial obligations” to be eligible to vote, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet on Tuesday unanimously approved making it easier for felons who owe restitution to get their civil rights restored.

The revised rule, OK'd by DeSantis and the Cabinet as the Board of Executive Clemency, is the latest move in a drawn-out legal and political battle over the restoration of rights in Florida. Critics have accused the state of clinging to a process designed to keep black people from voting.

The revamped rule will allow felons who have waited at least seven years after they have completed their time behind bars and have fulfilled other requirements but owe restitution to victims to request a hearing from the clemency board.

Under the current rules, restitution must be paid in full before felons can apply to have their rights restored.

The current process will remain the same for felons who are eligible for clemency without a hearing. Felons who have not been convicted of murder, sex offenses or other violent crimes — such as those resulting in death — and who have completed their sentences, paid restitution and have not committed any crimes for five years may apply to have their rights restored without a hearing.

The change, proposed by DeSantis and unanimously approved by Attorney General Ashley Moody, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, followed a recent Florida Supreme Court opinion that found the state law properly carried out a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at restoring the rights of felons who have completed terms of their sentences.

Perhaps more important, the revised clemency rule could satisfy a federal judge’s ruling that the state must have a way for felons who cannot afford to pay “legal financial obligations” to register to vote.

Backers of a 2018 constitutional amendment, known as Amendment 4, called the revised rule “a small step in the right direction.”

“Lost in the political chatter are the lives of real people, public safety, and Florida taxpayers,” said Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, in a prepared statement.

The clemency board met by telephone Tuesday morning to consider the rule revision, which was not posted online and was not available to the public until after the unanimous vote.

It’s unclear whether the change to the rules will intensify a backlog of clemency applications. As of Jan. 1, there were 23,798 pending applications for restoration of rights, according to the Commission on Offender Review.

“Legal financial obligations” — fees and fines imposed by the court, as well as restitution — were a flashpoint last year as state legislators crafted a law aimed at implementing Amendment 4.

Voting-rights groups and civil-rights advocates quickly challenged the law in federal court, arguing in part that linking finances and voting rights amounts to an unconstitutional “poll tax.”

Siding with plaintiffs in October, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that the state cannot deny the right to vote to felons who are “genuinely unable to pay” the legal financial obligations. The 11th U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta is scheduled to hear arguments in the state’s appeal of Hinkle’s decision on Jan. 28.

In a Dec. 20 ruling, Hinkle refused to block part of his decision that allows county elections supervisors to continue registering felons who assert they are unable to pay outstanding fees and fines.

The federal judge, however, blocked the ability of felons who are unable to pay legal financial obligations to vote, at least for now.